Catching up with Darryl Bullock for a chat about music is always a pleasure. However, life gets in the way of the best laid plans so this was recorded a little earlier than normal but we still managed to find the time to talk about our favourite record purchases of the year.
Kooks (Bowiepromo Mix) – David Bowie
Don’t Talk Put Your Head On My Shoulder – The Beach Boys
Train Running Low On Soul Coal – XTC
Thank You – Tori Amos
We Should Be Together – The Wedding Present & Louise Wener
Back in dim distant days of yore when the internet was not as regulated as it now is, many a blog sprung up sharing all sorts of wonderful music that before hand was either impossible to find and/or only a very few knew about. Many, if not all of these have fallen by the wayside either through the person running them giving up or the file sharing programme they used having been shut down (Megaupload was most probably the most notorious of these).
One such site was Psych, Crackle & Pop, that ran for about four years, showcasing a good deal of music from the psych years from all over the world, but with most of the tracks produced by artists from the UK or USA. Every so often a new compilation of CD length would appear. I had hardly heard any of the songs and the quality of the material on the first few volumes was especially high. Whoever was making these compilations must have had an extensive knowledge of that period of music.
Using this site as a template, I decided to make my own compilation from these tracks, with the addition of ‘Wind’ by Kim Jung Mi which seemed to be a nice fit. This is continuing the theme of Psych related compilations that have been posted this year with this and next months Volume 2 focusing more on the pop side of the genre.
As per other psych compilations I have produced this year, this one contains some musicians who would go on to be famous later on. This includes Fairport Convention. ‘If I Had a Ribbon Bow’ was their first single when they could best be described as the British equivalent of the Jefferson Airplane. They were yet to become the folk rock behemoth of a couple of years later. Graham Gouldman was a name in the business, having written hits for The Yardbirds and The Hollies but he was yet to become a hit musician but he would achieve this in the 70s with 10cc. Aphrodite’s Child contained Demis Roussos and Vangelis, both of whom would be massive successful on their own. Timothy Grass was one of the names used by the Bill Wyman produced End before they became the hard rockin’ Tucky Buzzard.
Disc 1
In The Past – We The People
Sunday Morning – Margo Guryan
Baby’s Rich – The God’s
If I Had A Ribbon Bow – Fairport Convention
I Am Beside Myself – Frabjoy & Runcible Spoon
Children Of Tomorrow – Mike Stuart Span
Red, Purple & Blue – The Bag (US)
I Don’t Mind – Fat Mattress
Miss Jones – The Herd
Tell Me To My Face – The Hollies
Bus Stop – Graham Gouldman
The Devil Has Possession Of Your Soul – The Flying Machine
Chocolate Sue – The Moan
Ballad Of The Bad Boys (1956 A.D.) – Faine Jade
Super Market – Frapadokly
Swinger (Mono) – The Third Rail
Feelings – The Grass Roots
Let The Truth Come Out – The Sugar Shoppe
I Am An Angel (But I Can’t Fly) – The Amen Corner
I See Her Face – The Hudson Bay Co.
Never Mind – Elli
I Like – Kaplan
Sarah The Sad Spirit – Bob Markley (WCPAEB)
Valley of Sadness – Aphrodite’s Child
Dougal – The Bulldog Breed
Black Mass – Jason Crest
Secret – Virgin Sleep
Disc 2
Isha (Mono) – Chris & Craig
When She Comes To Say – Skip Bifferty
I’ll Search The Sky – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Hear In Here – The Association
Dream With Me – Jacobson & Tansley
Flashing Lights – Lord Sutch & Heavy Friends
The Ballad Of The Soon Departed – O’Hara’s Playboys
Catherine’s Wheel – Denny Laine
Roger The Rocket Ship – Bob Markley (WCPAEB)
Know You – Kensington Market
Emilys Vacation – Jake Holmes
Seeing With Love – The Tages
Baby Dear – Wildflowers
Dance Around Julie – Doughnut Ring
Wind – Kim Jung Mi
Ain’t It Babe – Charity Shaynes
Blood Of Oblivion -The Rainy Daze
I Had A Notion -The Sound Solutions
Shades Of Blue – Darius
I Think I Need The Cash – The Secrets
It’s All A Put On – The Ones
Sunny Day Blue – Fargo
Where Is My Mind – Pesky Gee!
Second Glance – Timothy Grass
We Don’t Care – Hubert Thomas Valverde & The HT’s
The front cover is taken from the Psych, Crackle & Pop blogspot with my rainbow backing to bring it in line with my other psych replaced compilations. The image itself was adapted from the rather wonderful, and now over twenty years old compilation from Mojo Magazine which was called ‘Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers’.
As I come to the end of my year of Psychedelic playlists, I thought I would throw a reimagined version of one of the great psych albums. That is ‘Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’, the debut album from Pink Floyd. This was the only album to include original guitar player and main songwriter, Syd Barrett when at the hight of his powers. His tenure in the band was short lived, which if you have seen the recent ‘Have You Got It Yet?” film could have been down to a personality disorder exasperated by his drug intake. The album could only have come out in the late 60s, with its songs covering subjects such as the I-Chang, gnomes, bikes and with references to children’s literature. The psychedelic jams are also very much of their time.
With the Floyd over the past ten years or so finally given the archives a bit of a clear out, it was nice to see what there was to come up with an album that was in my opinion all killer and no filler. That meant including the single A-Sides of ‘Arnold Layne’ and ‘See Emily Play’. Singles at this time were, for the most part, were left off of albums but not always. There is the exclusive B-Side of ‘Arnold Layne’ as well to consider. ‘Candy and a Current Bun’ was originally known as ‘Let’s Roll Another One’. The lyrics and title were changed after pressure from the record company due to their overt references to drugs. It didn’t stop Barrett from including the word ‘Fuck’ in the re-recording in such a way that it was missed by everyone not listening closely enough. For this what-if album, that originally version is included here and is the one song on this compilation that the Floyd have not released officially. Why not I ask, considering a recording of it does still exist and has been present on bootlegs, in edited form. The instrumental middle section always seems to be missing form the persons I have heard.
I have always found Pink Floyd’s psychedelic noodling became a little tedious after a couple of listens and ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ is no acceptation. Due to the additional tracks, but wanting something to compliment ‘For R. Too H.” I thought about editing down ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ to a more manageable length but on the 40th Anniversary of ‘Piper At The Gates of Dawn’ from 2007, there were a couple of different versions. The ‘French Edit’ fades out but ‘Take 6’ is complete so I used this instead. It doesn’t have the awesome ending the original LP version has but in this case less is more. I have also included an alternative version of ‘Matilda Mother’ which has completely different lyrics.
The rest of the album is as you were, even though I suspect to get the most out of this release, all the songs would have to have been released in mono.
Side 1
stronomy Domine
Lucifer Sam
Chapter 24
See Emily Play
Flaming
Pow R. Toc H.
Side 2
Arnold Layne
Interstellar Overdrive (Take 6)
The Gnome
Let’s Roll Another One
The Scarecrow
Matilda Mother (Alternative Version)
Bike
The cover was one that I came across online but did not make a note of who the creator was. Whoever you are, thank you especially as this is considerably more psychedelic than the one the original album had.
Dennis Wilson was not the first member of The Beach Boys to release a solo record. His brother Brian got there in 1966 when ‘Pet Sounds’ song ‘Caroline, No’ came out under his name and not the name of the band. Brian was at it again in 1967 when the ‘Smiley Smile’ song, ‘Getting Hungry’ came out credited to Wilson and band mate/cousin Mike Love. What can be said about his 1970 single, Sound Of Free’ is that is was, arguably, the most surprising. Granted, he had started to write and contribute songs to the last couple of Beach Boys albums, but a solo record? Backed with ‘Lady’, the single only came out in a small number of countries. These were the UK, Netherlands, Ireland, France and New Zealand. The single was not a hit in any of these territories.
The single was listed as being by Dennis Wilson and Rumbo. Rumbo was the pseudonym of Daryl Dragon, who at this time was playing keyboards in The Beach Boys band. Dragon would be one of a number of co-writers that helped Wilson with his compositions. It would seem that Wilson was not only working on songs to be presented to The Beach Boys, but also had enough material for a solo album. He would work on this material between 1970 and 1971, even pulling his material from the ‘Surf’s Up’ album, which some have said is because he wanted them for his own record. I wrote about the reasons this happened in my previous post.
A few titles have been put forward for this album, including ‘Freckless’, ‘Poops’ and ‘Hubba Hubba’. The ‘Poops’ name came because Wilson and his second wife, Barbara Charren called each other Big Poop (the former) and Little Poop (the latter). The majority of the songs from this period were inspired by Barbara and Wilson’s love for her. Work continued along with touring commitments, Wilson’s appearance in the film ‘Two-Lane Blacktop’ and work on The Beach Boys albums themselves. Stephen Desper, The Beach Boys studio engineer at this time said ‘ninety percent of it was ninety percent done’. So why didn’t it come out?
No one can quite say. Wilson could have lost interest in the project or it could have been down to the fact some of his songs that he was keeping for this solo album were used for the ‘Carl & The Passions – So Tough’ album. Whatever happened, a good deal of these songs remained in the vault and we have had to wait nearly fifty years for the majority to be released. The wonder box set, ‘Feel Flows’ box set continuing the most of them. Last year, a few sites tried to reconstruct this album but I have come at this at a slightly different time/angle than they did. These others were looking at an album that would have come out in 1971. I propose that this Dennis Wilson album would have come out in 1974 instead.
Why did I go with this date? Well, The Beach Boys had released at least an album a year up to 1973, but then there was a gap of a couple of years. In 1974, a compilation called ‘Endless Summer’ came out and focused on their surfing and car songs from the mid 60s. The album became a massive hit and made them a major live draw, but it had the knock on effect of refocusing the band into more of an oldies act than the progressive band they had become.
There were some sessions in 1974 but the will does not seem to be there to really get to work on a new album. However, a couple of the songs recorded during these sessions were Dennis Wilson originals. What happened if Dennis had taken these songs along with everything he had left in the archive and constructed his first solo album, three years before his cult classic ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ came out. Well, this is what I came up with.
Unlike previous efforts to reconstruct this album, I did not want to include anything that had already been released. Therefore, none of the songs that I included on my previous Dennis Wilson post (insert link to previous post here). It needed to be strictly songs that had not seen the light of day before. The majority of the songs do come from the 1971 sessions, but there are a couple of songs from the late 60s which does make the sound of the album a little disjointed. If this had been released at the time, I am sure the 60s songs would have been remixed to make them sound more contemporary.
Even though this album is a little disjointed in terms of sound, it does prove that Dennis Wilson was an excellent song writer who was going through a hot streak in the early 70s that most artists can only dream about. Why material of this quality were left in the vault is beyond me, even if some of the songs that have come out do sound as though there were unfinished or did not get past demo recordings.
Side 1
The Gong (Edited)* – 1968
Barnyard Blues – 1974
My Love Lives On – 1974
Barbara – 1971
It’s A New Day – 1971
Hawaiian Dream – 1971
Medley: All Of My Love/Ecology – 1971
Side 2
I’m Going Your Way – 1969
A Time To Live In Dreams – 1969
Before – 1971
Carry Me Home – 1973
4th of July – 1971
(Wouldn’t It Be Nice To) Live Again – 1971
*The Gong seems to be Dennis Wilson mucking around in the studio. However, there was a small section which sounded like a good introduction to this LP.
The cover is adapted from an article that was included in Shindig Magazine. I’m afraid I am not sure when the article was written though but I think it was in late 2021. None of the titles suggested by Wilson for this were particularly good, but ‘Hubba Hubba’ was already on the cover I used and it considerably better that ‘Poops’. Maybe Dennis should have spoken to Mike Love about this. Love has always maintained that he is a title guy.
In life, Dennis Wilson was the rock and roll animal sitting behind the drums whilst leading a drug and alcohol induced descent into what was an early death. However, scratch the surface and there was a lot more to this man than first met the eye. He appeared in cult film ‘Two-Lane Blacktop’, inspired Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie to write ‘Only Over You’ about him and was arguably the second best songwriter in The Beach Boys after his brother Brian.
Dennis had contributed next to nothing in terms of songwriter during the early days on the band but with Brian taking a step back after the ‘Smile’ sessions, the other members of the group needed to step up. Dennis did exactly that and every Beach Boys album from 1968’s ‘Friends’ LP to 1973’s ‘Holland (excluding 1971 ‘Surf’s Up’) included at least one song written by him.
There have been a couple of reasons why Dennis didn’t place any songs on ‘Surf’s Up’. The man himself said that the songs he put forward for inclusion didn’t gel with everyone else songs. Another reason is that there was some inter band fighting going on about how many Wilson brother penned songs were going on the LP, with Carl and Brian already taking up more than half of the album time. The third, and most probably the real reason was that Dennis had been keeping songs back for a solo album. He had already released a solo single in 1970 under the name of Dennis Wilson and Rumbo. Rumbo was a name used by Beach Boys keyboard player, Daryl Dragon, who would later be known as the Captain and be one half of Captain & Tensile.
I am getting a little ahead of myself here, but December 2023 is the 40th Anniversary of Dennis Wilson passing so in the first of two projects related to him, I have put together a compilation that could have been released by the band as a tribute to him. This would not include his lead vocals on songs prior to 1968 or the two songs he had writer’s credits on before that year either. That is because I wanted to focus on Dennis the songwriter during the period 1968 to 1973. I choose these years because after this, Dennis was focused on recording his two solo albums, ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ and ‘Bambu’ (only one of which came out in his lifetime). This lead to him not contributing much to Beach Boys projects from 1974 onwards. I also look to only include songs that Dennis either wrote on his own or with one other person. therefore, songs such as ‘Be Here In the Mornin’ don’t make the cut.
All the songs were released by The Beach Boys except ‘Sound Of Free’ and ‘Lady (Fallin’ In Love)’ which were released as a Dennis Wilson solo single in some European territories in1970.
Side 1
Sound Of Free – Solo single A-Side (1970)
All I Want To Do – 20/20 (1969)
Got To Know The Woman – Sunflower (1970)
Lady (Fallin’ In Love) – Solo single B-Side (1970)
It’s About Time – Sunflower (1970)
Forever – Sunflower (1970)
Be With Me – 20/20 (1969)
Only With You – Holland (1973)
Be Still – Friends (1968)
Side 2
Never Learn Not To Love – 20/20 (1969)
Slip On Through – Sunflower (1970)
Little Bird – Friends (1968)
Celebrate The News – Single B-Side (1969)
Steamboat – Holland (1973)
Make It Good – Carl & The Passions (1972)
Cuddle Up – Carl & The Passions (1972)
The cover image is a picture taken from the inner gatefold sleeve of Denny’s album ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’. I like the image so much, I thought I would also make this sleeve a gatefold. The Caribou Records and Brother Record label logos have been added as this were the labels Dennis and the Beach Boys were both on at the time.
This mythical unreleased first solo album that Dennis Wilson was working on during the early 70s will be something I will be looking at later in the month.
It’s getting near to the end of the month so it must be time for another one of my compilations looking at the Psychedelic Years. It is also the last one in the series and this one focuses on the latter period of this genre. The majority of these songs come from 1969 with the odd song coming from either side of that year. What this compilation does is show the progression psych musicians made towards the Prog Rock era.
Between their first recording session in October 1966, and August 1968, the Jimi Hendrix Experience packed a lot in. Numerous tours, non album singles, three LPs (including one double), tv and radio appearances. These guys were really busy. This schedule, coupled with Hendrix’s increased perfectionism in the studio caused tension. Chas Chandler, the man who had brought Hendrix to the UK and produced the Experiences first two albums walked out of the session for ‘Electric Ladyland’, the bands third LP because of it. Hendrix would also invite friends and hangers on to the studio which also contributed to Chandler leaving. He had had enough of these people clogging up the control room. Bass player Noel Redding had also formed the band Fat Mattress, which meant he could not spend as much time in the studio with Hendrix. This would lead Hendrix to play a number of the bass parts during these sessions himself.
With all of this going on, it is a surprise that anything would be released, let alone an album that would be eventually be hailed as a classic. Using studio techniques such as echo, back masking and flanging, the album took the template of the bands previous albums and expanded them beyond the psychedelic blues of their earlier efforts. There were blues jams, a sci-fi influenced side long studio production, hard rock, social commentary as well as a couple of notable cover version, including ‘All Along The Watchtower’, one of the few occasions where the cover is significantly better than the original.
Today, it stands as Hendrixs’ defining LP and it was the last studio album he released in his lifetime. However, when it first came out, not all of the reviews were positive. Medley Maker called it “mixed up and muddled”. Rolling Stone commented that the original songs sometimes sound unstructured. That isn’t to say that there were some positives but the double LP’s was still a new concept in 1968, and even today, there aren’t that many artists who put one out. Most suffer from the same criticism in that there is too much padding and substandard songs. With this in mind and to celebrate 55 years since the album was released, I thought I would have a look at turning ‘Electric Ladyland’ into a single LP.
Side A
And The Gods Made Love
Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
Crosstown Traffic
Come On (Part 1)
Long Hot Summer
Still Raining, Still Dreaming
Side B
Gypsy Eyes
House Burning Down
All Along The Watchtower
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
Playing this through, this is a tight album that dispenses with the jams (Voodoo Chile) and the science fiction ramblings of “1983…(a Merman I Should Turn To Be)”. Removing both of these save up to around 30 minutes of playing time. That does still mean that a couple of other songs need to go so that the playing time would fit comfortably onto a vinyl record. ‘Little Miss Strange’ is very lightweight 60s pop and does stand out on the album as being one of, if not the weakest track. A B-Side at best. Last to go is ‘Burning Of The Midnight Lamp’. Nothing wrong with this song but it does sound a little out of place as it was already a year old by the point the LP came out, and it had already been released as a single in 1967. It sounds a little different from the rest of the album because it was produced by Chas Chandler. The rest of ‘Electric Ladyland’ was produce (and directed) by Jimi Hendrix. This was also the era were singles tended not to be included on albums so that is why this one has been dropped.
All in all, a pretty good single album. The front cover was used for the 50th Anniversary Box Set but this is what Hendrix wanted before his record company ignored his wishes.
For the second in my look at the career of The Beach Boys, I am posting this on the 60th Anniversary of the release of ‘Little Deuce Coupe’. This album came out on 7th October, 1963 and was the third album the group released in that year which meant that this was a very busy time for The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson especially.
First up was ‘Surfing USA’, released in March of 1963 and then in September, out came ‘Surfer Girl’. That meant there was only a months gap between that and ‘Little Deuce Coupe’. Considering an artist in the current climate does well to release a new album every two years, this is quite a turn over in product. This last album was clearly an LP too far because if we look at the track listing for ‘Little Deuce Coupe’, you can see that there was plenty of original material on it, but four of the twelve tracks had appeared on earlier albums. If you consider that their first album came out just over a year earlier on 1st October 1962, Brian Wilson was also writing and producing material for artists outside of The Beach Boys. It is not a surprise that he decided that he wanted to stop going out on the road and concentrate on working in the studio. He was not going to get his wish straight away because even though Al Jardine came back into the band to cover for his, David Marks was not far off leaving.
So what do we get in this period of The Beach Boys. There are a few covers, which is not a surprise considering how many records the band was releasing as well as Brian Wilson’s side projects. There are a number of instrumentals and when it comes to the ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ LP and recycling of some old material. As a side note, it could be argued that ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ is an early concept album as the majority of the songs on it are about cars. There is also a major step up in the quality of songs that Wilson was writing and the instrumentation he was using. Take ‘In My Room’ a song from the ‘Surfer Girl’ album. It has some harp playing on it, and an early appearance by studio player extraordinaire Hal Blaine on percussion. The song is not about surfing, cars or girls and has melancholy theme. A massive hint on where Wilson would go in a few years time culminating in the masterpiece that is ‘Pet Sounds’. This is also one of the few Beach Boys recordings where David Marks and Al Jardine both perform before the 2012 LP, ‘That’s Why God Made The Radio’.
Sources for the songs included on this set.
1 – Surfin’ U.S.A.
2 – Hawthorne, CA: Birthplace Of A Musical Legacy
3 – Unsurpassed Masters Vol.2 (Bootleg)
4 – Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys (Box Set)
5 – Made In California (Box Set)
6 – Unsurpassed Masters Vol.3 (Bootleg)
7 – Surfer Girl
8 – Stack O’Tracks
9 – In The Beginning (Bootleg)
10 – The Big Beat 1963
11 – Endless Harmony Soundtrack
12 – Surfer Girl (1990 Reissue)
13 – Rarities Vol.1 1962-1968 (Bootleg)
14 – Little Deuce Coupe
15 – Unsurpassed Master Vol.4 (Bootleg)
16 – Shut Down Vol.2
17 – Christmas Sessions (Bootleg)
18 – The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album
19 – The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album (1991 Reissue)
20 – Alternative Dumb Angel Vol.1 (Bootleg)
21 – Legends Of Christmas Past
22 – Christmas Sessions Vol.1
23 – Sounds Of Summer: The Best Of The Beach Boys (Expanded Super Deluxe)
Disc 4 which are the songs exclusively on ‘Shut Down Volume 2’ is a little sparse when it come to outtakes. It would seem that the bootleggers were not able to get their hands on those session tapes or possibly they have gone missing.
Ballad Of Old Betsy (Demo) – 10
Ballad Of Old Betsy (Instrumental Takes 1, 2 & 3) – 3
Ballad Of Old Betsy (Instrumental Take 4) – 3
Ballad Of Old Betsy (Mono) – 14
Ballad Of Old Betsy (Stereo) – 14
Be True To Your School (Mono) – 14
Be True To Your School (Stereo) – 14
Be True To Your School (Mono Single Version) – 5
Car Crazy Cutie (Mono) – 14
Car Crazy Cutie (Stereo) – 14
Cherry, Cherry Coupe (Mono) – 14
Cherry, Cherry Coupe (Stereo) – 14
Spirit Of America (Mono) – 14
Spirit Of America (Stereo) – 14
No-Go Showboat (Mono) – 14
No-Go Showboat (Stereo) – 14
A Young Man Is Gone (Mono) – 14
A Young Man Is Gone (Stereo) – 14
Custom Machine (Mono) – 14
Custom Machine (Stereo) – 14
I Do (Demo) – 10
I Do (Instrumental Take 1) – 15
I Do (Instrumental Takes 2 & 3) – 15
I Do (Instrumental Takes 4 & 5) – 15
I Do (Instrumental Take 6) – 15
I Do (Instrumental Take 7) – 15
I Do (Vocal Overdub Takes 1 & 2) – 15
I Do (Vocal Overdub Take 3) – 15
I Do (Vocal Overdub Take 4) – 15
I Do (Vocal Overdub Take 5) – 15
I Do (Unknown Take 1) – 15
I Do (Master) – 16
Back Home (Take 1) – 13
Back Home (Take 4) – 13
Back Home – 5
Disc 5
Disc 5 is made up mostly of the two sides of the Christmas single that band put out that year as well as tracks that I did not have room for anywhere else. “Little Saint Nick’ in its single configuration is the same recording as would appear on the 1964 album ‘The Beach Boys Christmas Album’ but the later version is stripped down of some of the production due to the fact that the album had been recording quickly and the original mix would have sounded out of place on that LP.
Punchline (Instrumental) – 4
Gonna Hustle You (Demo) – 10
Little Surfer Girl – 4
Chopsticks Boogie – 13
Things We Did Last Summer – 4
Let’s Go Trippin’ (Take 8) – 3
Let’s Go Trippin’ (Mono) – 1
Let’s Go Trippin’ (Stereo) – 1
Side Two (Instrumental Take 1) – 3
Side Two (Instrumental Take Unknown) – 3
Side Two (Instrumental) – 10
The Baker Man (Instrumental Takes 1 & 2) – 3
The Baker Man (Vocal Take) – 3
The Baker Man – 24
Little Saint Nick (Takes 2, 3, 4 & 5) – 9
Little Saint Nick (Take 6) – 9
Little Saint Nick (Vocal Take Stereo Mix) – 17
Little Saint Nick (Alt. Mix – More Sleigh Bells) – 17
Little Saint Nick (Vocals & Music Rechanneled) – 22
Thirty years ago, someone in some department at record label PolyGram TV decided that what the world needed (or the UK at least) was a CD compilation of prog rock songs. Prog rock (or progressive rock to give it its full title) was born out of the late 60s psych scene. It was characterised by lyrics that were designed to tell stories (or concepts), taking inspiration from fantasy along with extended soloing (designed to show off the musical prowess of the player involved), outlandish costumes and ever more elaborate stage sets. The album covers were works of art in themselves and the LPs become ever more overblown with double and even triple albums being released. It all came crashing down by 1976 but prog never really went away with bands such as Marillion and arguably Radiohead taking the genre on after its heyday. What is forgotten is that even though prog was (in)famous for its LPs, many bands in the genre actually released singles.
Back to the aforementioned compilation. What the compiler of that CD had looked to do was produce a compilation of singles by a number of these prog bands. What I didn’t realise until years later is that some of these singles were the bands biggest hits, others were not. What I have done here in an update of this CD is to only include the biggest UK hit from each band during the heyday of the prog rock era. That is the years 1971-1976 but you will notice that some of these singles pre and post date this. To qualify, the single had to be released after the starting point of prog, which (as far as I am concerned) was the release of ‘In The Court of the Crimson King’ by King Crimson which came out on 10th October 1969. The band in question also needed to have a genuine top 40 hit in the UK. There were more prog bands than I have included here who released singles but none of them was actually a hit, so they don’t count.
One last point. Like other genres, the scope of what is prog is quite wide. Some of the artists on the list might not be considered progressive now (or that progressive then), but many were on the progressive labels set up by the record companies in the late 60s to be the home of bands not considered pop. Some prog rock was not that far removed from rock, jazz or the blues so the boundaries can be a little blurred. Prog folk and other versions of prog were considered. Essentially, anything where the artists is progressing from what went before was fair game e.g. Kraftwerk.
Witches Promise – Jethro Tull (No.4 – Jan 1970 (1))
Sympathy – Rare Bird (No.27 – Feb 1970)
Who Do You Love? – Juicy Lucy (No.14 – Mar 1970)
Question – The Moody Blues (No.2 – May 1970 (2))
Love Like A Man – Ten Years After (No.10 – Jun 1970)
Paranoid – Black Sabbath (No.4 – Aug 1970)
Black Night – Deep Purple (No.2 – Aug 1970)
The Witch – The Rattles (No.8 – Oct 1970)
I Hear You Knocking – Dave Edmunds (No.1 – Nov 1970)
Apache Drop Out – Edgar Broughton Band (No.33 – Mar 1971 (3))
Standing In The Road – Blackfoot Sue (No.4 – Aug 1972)
Whiskey In The Jar – Thin Lizzie (No.6 – Jan 1973)
Fanfare For The Common Man – Emerson, Lake & Palmer (No.2 – Jun 1977)
Virginia Plain – Roxy Music (No.4 – Aug 1972 (6))
Sylvia – Focus (No.4 – Jan 1973)
All Because Of You – Geordie (No.6 – Mar 1973)
One & One Is One – Medicine Head (No.3 – May 1973)
Radar Love – Golden Earring (No.7 – Dec 1973)
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) – Genesis (No.21 – Apr 1974 (7))
Seven Seas Of Rhye – Queen (No.10 – Mar 1974 (9))
Down Down – Status Quo (No.1 – Dec 1974)
Autobahn – Kraftwerk (No.11 – May 1975 (9))
Delilah (Live) – The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (No.7 – Jul 1975)
Pandora’s Box – Procol Harum (No.16 – Aug 1975 (10))
Portsmouth – Mike Oldfield (No.3 – Apr 1976)
Blinded By The Light – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (No.6 – Aug 1976 (11))
Wonderous Stories – Yes (No.7 – Sep 1977)
Northern Lights – Renaissance (No.10 – Jul 1978)
This isn’t Jehtro Tull’s biggest hit. That was ‘Living In The Past’ that came out in May 1969 and is just before the self imposed cut off point for this compilation.
The Moody Blues did have a number 1 hit in December 1964 with the distantly not prog, ‘Go Now’.
This entered the charts three times but its highest placing came on the third and last time.
John Kongos had another hit with ‘He’s Gonna Step on You Again’ which also reached number 4 in May 1971.
Not their biggest hit but it was the only one ELO had when Roy Wood was in the band which is arguably their progressive period.
Like ELO, this was not Roxy Music’s biggest hit but I would argue that they stopped being progressive once Brian Eno left the band.
Once again, this was not the bands biggest hit but the only one when they were at the most progressive. This was before Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett left.
Queen had a number one with the very pro ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. However, I chose this song as it was the only hit single from the bands first two albums, when they were at their most progressive.
Kraftwerk’s only hit during the 1970s which is arguably their most progressive period, before other bands and technology caught up to what they were doing later in the decade.
Procol Harum had two bigger hits than this, but they came up before the progressive era.
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band had another number 6 hit with ‘Davy’s On The Road Again’. I went with ‘Blinded By The Light’ as it is a lot more prog, especially the full length LP version.
Disc 1
Jig-A-Jig – East of Eden
Living In The Past – Jethro Tull
Who Do You Love? – Juicy Lucy
Love Like A Man – Ten Years After
The Witch – The Rattles
Paranoid – Black Sabbath
Black Night – Deep Purple
Apache Drop Out – Edgar Broughton Band
Question – The Moody Blues
Sympathy – Rare Bird
Devil’s Answer – Atomic Rooster
Backstreet Luv – Curved Air
I Hear You Knocking – Dave Edmunds
In My Own Time – Family
Tokoloshe Man – John Kongos
Silver Machine – Hawkwind
Hold Your Head Up – Argent
Standing In The Road – Blackfoot Sue
Side 2
Whiskey In The Jar – Thin Lizzie
10538 Overture – Electric Light Orchestra
Fanfare For The Common Man – Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Lady Eleanor – Lindisfarne
Virginia Plain – Roxy Music
Sylvia – Focus
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) – Genesis
All Because Of You – Geordie
Radar Love – Golden Earring
One & One Is One – Medicine Head
Autobahn – Kraftwerk
Seven Seas Of Rhye – Queen
Down Down – Status Quo
Pandora’s Box – Procul Harum
Delilah (Live) – The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Portsmouth – Mike Oldfield
Blinded By The Light – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
Wonderous Stories – Yes
Northern Lights – Renaissance
I wanted to use the original artwork of the compilation used back in 1993, but I could not find one of sufficient quality on line so I made my own, adapting a compilation that had been produced by Classic Rock magazine.
One or more of these version were not available on Spotify.
It’s the ninth month so it means that it must be time for another Psych compilation. As per usual, there are a number of famous artists including Fairport Convention (who were the British answer to The Jefferson Airplane at this point and not the folk rock band they would become) The Hollies, The Yardbirds and The Spencer Davis Group (even though by the time these tracks were recorded, Steve Winwood had left The Spencer Davis Group and they were not as successful after his departure). There are some artists who would become more famous later on including Graham Gouldman (he’d already written hits such as Bus Stop and For Your Love but he would find success as an artist in this own right as a member of 10cc) and Robert Palmer (then with The Alan Bown! but would find greater success with Vinegar Joe and as a solo artist). There is also a considerable number of artists who have only found success on compilations released many years after the event.
Toyland (Single Version) – The Spencer Davis Group
Mr. Sun – Tony Rivers & The Casterways
Difference Of Opinion – The Monatanas
Magic In The Air – The Attack
Dawn Breaks Down – The Barrier
Soft Winds – Orange Bicycle
Birthday – Peter & The Wolves
Girl Of Independent Means – Honeybus
Skizoid Revolution – Skip Bifferty
I Get So Excited – Real McCoy
A Day In My Mind’s Mind – Human Instinct
Dear Eloise (Mono Single Version) – The Hollies
Upstairs Downstairs – Graham Gouldman
Come On Down To My Boat – Motivation
Keep It Out Of Sight – Paul & Barry Ryan
Pantomime – Tony Rivers & The Catserways
The World Goes On Around You – The Mirage
Mrs Gillespie’s Refrigerator – Sands
Mr Second Class – The Spencer David Group
Rosemary’s Bluebell Day – The Piccadilly Line
Venetian Glass – Infinity
Lavender Popcorn – Scrugg
Gone Is The Sad Man – The Timebox
Just Another Day – Neon Pearl
Soldier – Lace
Moon Beams – The Magical Mixture
Music Soothes The Savage Beast – The Spectrum
Disc 2
Farewell (Mono) – The Yardbirds
Let’s Take A Trip Down The Rhine – Apple
Hide If You Want To Hide – The Cedars
You’ve Got To Hold On – The Deviants
In Your Tower – The Poets
Find The Hidden Door – The Misunderstood
Deflected Grey (Extended Version) – The Pretty Things
Little Girl Lost & Found – Peter & The Wolves
Hyacinth Threads – Orange Bicycle
Mr. Pinnodmy’s Dilemma – The Attack
Bluebell Wood – Wimple Witch
I Will Not Be Moved – Circle Plantagenet
Penny For Your Thoughts – The Alan Bown!
Snow White – Winston’s Fumbs
Eiderdown Clown – The Scots Of St. James
It’s All Over Now – Martin Cure & The Peeps
Odd Man Out – The Hi-Fi’s
Crossroads Of Time – Eyes Of Blues
Old Songs For New Songs (Variation On A Theme Of The Breeze) – Family
The Lobster – Fairport Convention
I Am Nearly There – Second Hand (With Dennis Couldry)
Look At Me – The Nocturnes
Armageddon – The Cape Kennedy Construction Company